1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Looks As if It Escaped From a Junkyard, Might Fetch $1 Million

The 300 SL Roadster (W198) comes with a numbers-matching engine, rare Rudge wheels, and looks like it is falling apart. The car is the image of desperation. Part of the Rudi Klein collection, it looks like it will fall apart if you just breathe its way.

Rudi Klein emigrated from Germany to the United States and started importing European cars. He was the one to set the foundation of the Porsche Foreign Auto in 1967. A car enthusiast to the bones, he kept adding cars to his garage. After he passed away in 2001, his family kept the cars, but never cleaned them or performed any maintenance at all.

Chassis number 7500173 is one of them and one of the 554 SL Roadsters that Mercedes built in 1957, the year the model made its debut. The car rolled off the production line in Fire Engine Red in September that year. However, there is no sign of that paint today. The Roadster might have been painted silver at some point. It is either that or the bare metal underneath what used to be the Fire Engine Red.

When Mercedes introduced the Roadster, it addressed a new breed of clientele: one that did not want to get all heads turning when popping the doors open. That was the effect the 300 SL Gullwing had on people.

Mercedes redesigned the frame of the car and the ingress and egress suddenly became easier. Occupants did not need to perform stunts to get on board. The automaker also reworked the suspension as the engineers came up with a low-pivot swing-axle rear suspension, with a transverse coil spring above the differential, which was linked to the axles by vertical struts, in order to minimize oversteer.

One of 30 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadsters with Rudge wheels
Something that will surely increase the value of the classic Benz is that it was fitted with Rudge wheels from the factory, displaying properly matching date codes, alongside a longer 1:3.42 ratio rear axle, compared to the typical US-bound Roadsters, which came with a 1:3.89 ratio. Mercedes used the Rudge wheel sets on only 30 cars.

The Mercedes was delivered as new to its first owner, a certain Mr. Thompson who lived in Kitzingen, Germany. Today, the car retains its numbers-matching engine, body, rear, and front axle. However, the gearbox was replaced. The odometer reads 17,873 kilometers (11,105 miles), which are surely original, covered in 67 years, which pretty much makes the SL Roadster a garage queen.

The 300 SL Roadster is powered by the 3.0-liter inline-six, which is capable of generating 240 horsepower (243 metric horsepower) and 217 pound-feet (294 Newton meters) of torque. A four-speed manual transmission puts the power down through the rear wheels for an acceleration from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 kph) in 9.3 seconds and a top speed of 146 mph (235 kph).

But this 1957 Roadster is still a long way to this kind of performance. Right now, the only speed we can talk about is the one of the trailer truck that will ship it to the next owner.

Iconic car – the victim of neglect
But what surrounds that odometer seems the victim of merciless time and neglect. It is surely going to need more than some TLC to get the soil out of the cabin and make that space look decent again.

The seats, which were once wrapped in cream leather, according to the listing, have been cut open and seem rotten. The car was factory-equipped with a Becker Mexico radio, which obviously is lightyears away from working, and is equipped with a Mercedes-Benz luggage set.

The Gullwing Group Roadster Register shows no information for chassis number 7500173 whatsoever. This means that the Roadster was not in the possession of active collectors in the niche and has apparently kept away from the eyes of the curious just as much as from the marque community for many decades.

Documented with copy of factory delivery sheet, this 1957 Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster will be auctioned off via RM Sotheby's on October 26. Despite looking like the only way for it would be the crusher, it is expected to sell for anything between $800,000 and $1 million. This is definitely one for the collector willing to take on an insane challenge and bring this iconic Benz from junkyard to Concours condition. It is, after all, one of the rarest cars out there.

The average price for a car of its kind is $1.4 million. The most expensive 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster sold for an eye-watering $3.1 million in August 2021 in Monterey, California.